I'm a notoriously fickle television viewer.  Simply put, I won't stick around long for a new show that doesn't wow me, and I'm more than happy to drop a show once it falls into a rut.  Time is precious and my shows have to be top notch.  I'm not a fan of procedurals and reality shows, but otherwise, I'm willing to give just about any other genre a chance. I never know what will dust my fancy, but when it does, oh my, I'm sold.

When the new TNT regime took over, they got rid of quite a few shows I loved like PERCEPTION, FRANKLIN AND BASH, and SULLIVAN AND SON.  I haven’t given up on TNT entirely;  they still have THE LIBRARIANS, and some of the new shows they launched this year look entertaining.  Critical Blast got an early look at the first two episodes of PROOF: “Pilot” and “Til’ Death.” 

Dracula. Fu Manchu. Saruman. Count Dooku.

Christopher Lee portrayed these and countless other notable characters in his decades spanning career, sending chills up our spines with creepfests like THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH. Those who've been around a while will always see him as Dracula, a role he portrayed in several of the classic Hammer horror films, or as the evil Chinese crime lord, Fu Manchu.  Millennials will more likely remember him for his role as Saruman in Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS films, or as Count Dooku in the later STAR WARS films.

The actor passed away last Sunday, according to The Guardian, of "respiratory problems and heart failure." He celebrated his 93rd birthday two months ago.

Finders Keepers is part of a trilogy of Stephen King books that started with last year’s Mr Mercedes.  In Mr Mercedes, a madman named Brady Hartsfield drives a stolen car into a crowd of people waiting to get into a job fair at City Center.  Brady taunts a retired police detective named Bill Hodges to come out of retirement to stop him from killing again.  Hodges (along with his associates Jerome and Holly) manage to stop Brady, who ends up in a coma after Holly gives him a thorough ass kicking.  . 

X-Tinction Agenda #1 by Marc Guggenheim & Carmine Di Giandomenico

Welcome back to Critical Blast’s weekly look at what new comics you should check out each week.   Just a warning, I make these picks pretty much a week BEFORE I actually get to read any of these comics, so if something is a stinker, I take no blame on that.  Let's get to it!

Comics Shipping This Week

Starfire #1 – I give DC a lot of credit for the free previews they made available on Comixology for the DCYou initiative.  There were quite a few books that I added to my pull list because of the strong previews.   Starfire was a real surprise for me.  I really enjoyed that one, and it is the book I am most excited about this week.

Sword of Sorrow #2

Written by: Gail Simone
Illustrated by: Sergio Davila
Cover by: Tula Lotay
Colored by: Jorge Sutil
Lettered by: Erica Schultz

Published by: Dynamite
Cover Price: $3.99

Warning! This review contains quite a few spoilers!

With all of the hype surrounding the recent release of the trailer for FALLOUT 4, I decided it was time to start getting myself back into the mindset of an open-world, first person RPG. I had recently been on a racing game kick, and with my anticipation for FO4 being kicked into overdrive, I grabbed my copy of FO3 and went to work.

Typically, after grinding a game for a few hours, I like to grab a FAQ and see everything I've missed. You can call me a cheater if you must, but I still get loads of enjoyment by playing with a handy-to-reference guide.

Okay, this is one of those things you admit when you're drunk with your friends and it's that point in the drinking where you admit embarrassing stuff you would never tell anyone else, but you're pretty sure that now is the right time to bare your soul. For me, it's this: I watched IN THE NAME OF THE KING and didn't hate it. It had a great cast, including Jason Statham, Leelee Sobieski, John Rhys-Davies, Ron Perlman, Matthew Lillard... and maybe because of that, it surpassed low expectations set by seeing that it was directed by Uwe Boll, whose claim to fame is making really bad movies out of moderately popular videogames.

On July 14, BBC Video will be releasing Doctor Who: The Daleks. This collection features a Doctor Who story from each of the modern Doctors facing off against the Daleks, a classic Doctor Who story, and a new Documentary called Dalek Origins. 

Dalek (season 1, episode 6)

By Mike Maillaro, Mike Weaver, Grey Scherl, and Gina Maillaro

Secret Wars #3 (Of 8) by Jonathan Hickman and Esad Ribic

Cheap Pops - June 7, 2015

by Chris Delloiacono, Mike Maillaro and Jeff Ritter

This week!

• Elimination Chamber Results

• Stardust Vs Stephen Amell

• Best in our World - Gimmick Matches

• NXT Results

KILLING JESUS is the film based on the book by Bill O'Reilly with Martin Dugard. I have not read this book, but if Christopher Menaul's vision of the movie is anything close to it, it's a very unique vision of Jesus, and one that I couldn't see sitting comfortably with most Christians.

The story covers the range of Jesus's life, but skips over some important aspects. It begins with King Herod (Kelsey Grammer) who has a vision of Isaiah telling him the true King of the Jews has been born. This precedes a visit from the magi who are following an astronomical sign, which prompts Herod to order all the male babies to be killed. But Jesus escapes, because Joseph feels that the adulation poured out on their child will arouse Herod's jealousy.

In case you're even an amateur Bible scholar, you may have noticed that we're skipping over that whole bit about a visitation from an angel and going with a gut feeling.

TNT's MAJOR CRIMES returns to television for a fourth season starting June 8, with a double homicide that seems to be an open and shut case. But then, when are they ever that easy on MAJOR CRIMES?

Returning to the series is Raymond Cruz as Detective Julio Sanchez, and not everybody is happy about that, particularly Lt. Andy Flynn (Tony Denison), who is very vocal about his concerns that Sanchez might blow up again at any crucial moment.

The homicide provides an opportunity for Rusty (Graham Patrick Martin) to develop a story for his college journalism course, and he obtains the necessary permissions from Chief Taylor (Robert Gossett) to do this. However, the lessons he gets from trying to follow the story end up having little to do with writing and more to do with the business. But it also leads into something else that is going to have repercussions throughout the season when he takes a hint from police photographer Buzz Watson (Phillip P. Keene).

This contest is over. The winners are DAN L. of LOS ANGELES, CA and LYNNE D. of GANSEVOORT, NY.

INSIDIOUS: CHAPTER 3 opens today, June 5. In honor of that, we are giving away a full-sized, double-sided theatrical poster to TWO (2) randomly selected entrants from this contest.

The good news is that you don't have to make contact with any supernatural or disturbing beings (the appearance of our editorial staff notwithstanding). All you have to do is enter your information in the form below, and click on the submit button.

If you haven't already done so, be sure to reference our complete rules and regulations. CriticalBlast.com does not sell, lease, or psychically transfer your personal information to anyone, and all entries are destroyed upon confirmation of delivery to the winner(s) via USPS priority mail tracking.

"Losers and weirdos stick together through thick and thin. Amen."

That's the unifying credo between brainiac preacher's daughter Genesis Beam and Nate Harlow, the unluckiest boy alive. Nate's notorious unlucky streak comes to a head when he's playing miniature golf -- on his eleventh birthday, on the eleventh of the month -- and he gets hit by lightning.

After his miraculous recovery, Nate's luck starts to turn around. It's little things at first, but it starts to grow and grow until people are simultaneously awed by him and afraid of him. And the more popular he becomes, the less time he wants to spend with Gen, cutting her off from the only friendship she ever shared.

Yesterday, we had posted the first set of teaser images from Marvel regarding what the universe would look like after Secret Wars.  Late last night, we got another group of characters.   Looks like these characters are:

By Mike Maillaro and Mike Weaver

This week, we say a fond farewell to Archie as we look forward to next month's relaunch!

Archie #666

After basically going into hiding since The Colbert Report went off the air, Stephen Colbert launched a new "Late Show With Stephen Colbert" channel on Youtube, and this teaser for his return to TV.  Its typical Colbert.  Funny and weird.  I've really missed having Colbert around and I can't wait for September!

Update:  Later in the day, Colbert posted a new video announcing that Jon Baptiste will be his new band leader:

From Mashable:

LOS ANGELES — Marvel Comics is planning a massive, publishing line-wide reboot this fall that will see all of its comic books revert back to No. 1s, introduce all-new superheroes and significantly alter others, including a new Spider-Man, a new Hulk and new team-ups never before imagined at the House of Ideas.

Dubbed "All-New, All-Different Marvel," the reset takes place after "Secret Wars," the ongoing summer event that will conclude an ambitious arc loosely going back to 2012 with the introduction of the highly popular "Avengers vs. X-Men" series.

"We've been planning it for years," Marvel Editor-in-Chief Axel Alonso told Mashable. "We realized that ['Secret Wars'] would be a game-changing moment that would allow us to create a big white canvas. It’s an unprecedented chance for us to tell new stories across all titles with new No. 1s."